Committee assignments

2013-2014

Issues

Pension sweeteners

On February 13, 2013, New York legislators introduced eight bills to "sweeten" government employee pensions. The nonpartisan Citizens Budget Commission released a chart of these bills and their costs, totaling $1.311 billion for the state government and $46 million for local governments. Steck sponsored one of these eight.[1] E.J. McMahon of the pro-market Empire State Center for New York Policy criticized the bills but placed major responsibility for them on Governor Andrew Cuomo, who in 2012 raised the possibility of better pension deals if the economy improved.[2] The New York Daily News published an editorial against the bills on February 21, denouncing the proposals as examples of "incorrigible recklessness with the public’s money."[3]

Assembly Bill 4981, sponsored by Peter Abbate, Addie Russell, and Steck, would give New York teachers who retired before 1980 a minimum annual payment of $550 for each year of full-time credited service. This would cost the local governments contributing to the New York State Teachers' Retirement System (NYSTRS) $1 million annually.[4]